Featuring Amanda Oliphant, Chris Routledge, Simon Cooper and Samantha Danford Jones
“The sea is as near as we come to another world.” – Anne Stevenson
High tides and rolling waves – take in the wonder of our ‘blue world’ through paintings and photographs in “The Sea”. The great beauty of the deep can represent many things; endless possibilities, brewing storms, a calm horizon, or a place of pollution – the artists in this exhibition take on some of these concepts in their artwork.
Chris Routledge – “These cyanotype prints, of Whitehaven and Maryport harbours, are early works from a larger and ongoing series about the Cumbrian coast. These towns were once important ports, but were overtaken two centuries ago by better-connected cities like Liverpool and Bristol. Harbours are always interesting, outward-looking places, but like the past, the sea keeps melancholy secrets.
I spent several hours standing with my large format camera looking out to sea and thinking about all the people who have come and gone through these harbour entrances, of fortunes made and lost, and lives changed forever.”
Amanda Oliphant – “Painting the landscape presents endless challenges, with constant changing weather, light and atmosphere, whether it is on the Wirral Peninsula or along visiting coastlines, I am always being driven by the elements that collide everyday but also by the peaceful serenity of a place, never two days being the same.”
Samantha Danford Jones – “The sea holds an immeasurable presence to me, with a depth and impenetrable life of its own; I have the utmost respect for her mystery which is both powerfully tremendous and fascinating. I have lived near or on the sea my entire life; for me, the flow of the ocean represents freedom, peace, solitude, sensuality and life.
I am always keen to raise awareness and encourage conservation of the ocean by supporting and following organisations such as Mission Blue, led by the legendary Dr Sylvia Earle who campaigns to protect swathes of ocean designated ‘Hope Spots’, around the world, Greenpeace who put huge boulders in the sea to stop trawlers dragging netting and over fishing, Zero Plastic Waste, coral gardeners who are re planting coral around the globe or divers planting mangroves to help protect low lying coastal areas from flood and devastation.”
Simon Cooper – “With these paintings, I’m not truly sure as to what they represent; do they describe better now than then, a situation so dreadful and devastatingly life-levelling that it was extremely difficult to paint whilst experiencing, or do they show what is happening now and which continues to happen every day – that of life flooding in at every opportunity?
They definitely show a massive change of direction within myself and within my art; instead of a frozen moment in time, an ‘Eno-esque’ ambient mood of momentary stillness & stasis that has saturated my work since the mid-1980’s, these new works show movement, albeit upon stormy and tempestuous waters, with swell that threatens to capsize and swallow at any and every moment. My trajectory is altered, destination unknown – yet the content clearly shows a new and very real way forward…”
All artworks are for sale.
Join dot-art for the Private View of the exhibition on Thursday 2nd February from 5pm-7pm.
All welcome, but you must register here: https://TheSeaPV.eventbrite.
The dot-art Gallery can be found at 14 Queen Avenue, Castle Street, Liverpool, L2 4TX (just 5 minutes’ walk from Liverpool One).
Opening times: Tuesday – Saturday, 10am-6pm
The exhibition runs 3rd February – 25th March 2023.